You got to hand it to Kathy Condon, Melissa Lindberg, Debbie Michaud and the entire MLSPIN staff. I know I keep saying this every year but MLSPIN pulled off the best CMLS ever. It just keeps getting better and better. Greg Manship capped off his term as CMLS president with an exclamation point and now has the daunting task of hosting CMLS next year in Boise.
I felt like I was in a pinball machine as I went bouncing from one conversation to another. But after sleeping for 48 hours straight I thought I’d share with you my Best of CMLS 2012 list. So here we go.
Best Tweet: Robert Drummer
Honorable Mention for Best Tweet: Robert Drummer again!
Best Swag: Cloud CMA (of course!)
Best Speaker: Elliot Eisenberg, Ph.D. -“Trending Water Never Looked So Easy – Economic Update”
Anybody who can bring a tear to the eye of this audience deserves a thumbs up.
Best Panel: I’m a little biased here but I thought my “Publish, Syndicate, or What?” panel with Andy Woolley, Bob Bemis, Matt Dollinger, Saul Klein, Luke Glass and the lovely Bobbie Chipman rocked it! (And yes, there was real tequila in that bottle!)
Best new technology: N-Play’s Real Estate Agent Directory.
I know what you’re thinking, another real estate directory? Yeah, but these guys are, in the parlance of Boston, “wicked smart”. They are all-in with the Facebook platform to create a directory of agents that has over 100,000 agents already participating. They design agent profiles pages to perfectly blend in with Facebook’s own look and feel to create a consistent experience. It almost feels like this is Facebook’s real estate agent directory. They also offer upsells to agents to enhance their Facebook page designs and IDX search. Great product, with a simple business model, leveraging the hottest social media site on the web. Genius.
Best new mobile app: Goomzee’s new “Agent X” demoed great. I love Mike Sparr’s enthusiasm and they way they are integrated other 3rd party apps in to their application.
As I looked upon the crowd of over 500 people in the ballroom I couldn’t help but feel a bit of nostalgia of what happen to my little CMLS conference. CMLS was an industry secret, a place where only a handful of vendors met with MLS people in exotic places like Schweitzer Mountain, Shalishan Lodge and Anchorage, Alaska. Good times. Good times.
